Incandescent Thoughts
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: During a late-night flight, Danny's mind turns from the mundane and physical to something more, and finds that, despite his blindness to the truths out there, he knows what makes Danny Phantom and who, exactly, is most important to him.


**Disclaimer: **_Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "Earthshine" is the property of Rush and Atlantic Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

* * *

His eyes slid open slowly, vacant azure eyes immediately shining with the pale moonlight that flowed in through his window. Groaning, Danny rolled over to look at his alarm clock, groaning once more when he saw that it was only a few minutes past midnight. Even though it was now Saturday morning, he would have preferred waking up sometime after the sun had come up. The previous day had been easy comparative to some of the others he'd lived through, as he'd only had to deal with Dash once over the course of the school day, and Technus and Box Ghost were the only ones to show up, but the fact remained that he appreciated sleep when he could get it.

Sitting up, he wiped the sleep from his eyes and ran his hands through his messy locks. Kicking the covers off, the cool air of the room rushed over his exposed chest and legs as he clambered out of bed. Quickly throwing his jeans on over his boxers, he sat back down on the edge of the mattress, the moonlight filtering through his window highlighting the twisted needlepoint of the scars that covered his torso.

Tapping into his ghost powers in order to augment his senses, he closed his eyes and listened. The light breathing of both his mother and sister was nearly drowned out by the raspy droning that belonged to his father, but he was assured that they were all fast asleep. Opening his eyes, a flash of light exploded in the room, his spectral form unleashed.

Crouching on the windowsill, Danny drifted into invisibility as he let himself fall from his perch, turning his body and taking to the skies just before he would have otherwise made contact with the ground. Bolting skyward, he cut through the sparse cloud cover, the damp air of the night refreshing him, and he burst through the tops of the mist feeling incredibly alive. Flying ever closer to the edge of the atmosphere, the air began to warm around him, and he slipped into intangibility, the heat of his body tearing through the air quickly vanishing.

As he crossed the final threshold between Earth and empty space, the sky above him rolled over to diamond-spotted black, his eyes flooded with the wondrous sight before him. Surrounded by the luminescent crown of stars was a sliver of the moon, its dark side showing slightly now that the clouding of the planet was now behind him.

**On certain nights**

**When the angles are right**

**And the moon is**

**A slender crescent**

A thought flashed through his mind and he smiled – all his life, he had longed for the feel of zero gravity, the chance to walk amongst the stars. He had wanted so much to follow his dream of becoming an astronaut, and here he was, floating silently in the abyss of space, enmeshed in the celestial dance taking place before his eyes. As he allowed his invisibility to slip away, he aimed for the distant moon, seeking to be as close to it as he dared.

**Its circle shows**

**In a ghostly glow**

**Of earthly luminescence**

An astronaut in his own right, he launched himself through the cosmos, flying faster than he had ever gone before as he no longer had to deal with the wind that was ever-present on Earth. Reveling in the glory of where he was as that moment, his eyes were taking in every single second of the experience he was basking in.

Finally coming close enough to the moon to tell where he was in relation to the Sea of Tranquility, he moved closer, following his own memory of the first Apollo mission, seeking the remnants of human presence on the lunar sphere. He soon found the spot where the first lunar landing had taken place, and he was sure that if his heart had still been beating, it would have stopped for a moment at the sight of the bootprints in the regolith, the American flag locked into a false windswept appearance.

Moving away slowly, his eyes floated over the multitude of sights dancing around him, knowing that he would have to return home soon. He didn't want to leave the glorious images that danced around him but he recognized that he should be home before his parents awoke to find him gone. Glazing one final time at the galaxy that surrounded him, he slipped into invisibility once more, diving towards the Earth, already re-orienting himself so as to get back over Amity Park.

**Earthshine**

**A beacon in the night**

**I can raise my eyes**

**To Earthshine**

Gliding through the dawn sky with unhindered ease and the speed of a diving falcon, Danny cleared some dense cloud cover to find himself a few hundred miles from home. Breezing through the stratosphere, he darted in and out of the clouds, trailing a bit of the mist behind him, and he laughed quietly, wondering just how much his activity was affecting what the meteorologists Earth-side were monitoring.

**Earthshine**

**A jewel out of reach**

**Form a dream to rise**

**To Earthshine**

Diving down now that he'd finally managed to get close to home, he kept up his invisibility as he darted skillfully between the buildings, effortlessly guiding himself into his room, dropping onto the bed as he returned to his human form, his mind whirling with the memories of the past night as he relaxed into his pillow. Closing his eyes, he saw only the barest hint of dawn's first light streaking across the sky as he drifted off to sleep, thankful that his parents would let him sleep in during the weekend.

He could only hope that the ghosts would be as considerate.

**Floating high**

**In the evening sky**

**I see my faint reflection**

The day had gone by with relatively no ghost activity, the Box Ghost's appearance notwithstanding, and Danny had been invited to stay overnight at Sam's. Tucker had been offered the same invited as the goth had gotten her hands on a prerelease copy of the latest issue of Doomed.

Danny and Tucker had a standing bet as soon as they'd left the Nasty Burger as to why they'd been invited. Seeing as it was a prerelease copy, Danny had figured that they'd been invited in order to brush up on their skills, remembering how easily Sam had dusted the both of them before. Despite this, Tucker insisted that they were going to team up with Chaos and wipe the floor with whoever else would be on that night.

Sam had affirmed Danny's thoughts when he and Tucker showed up on her doorstep later that night, which was quite to Tucker's dismay as he was not only forced to play against Chaos but also owed Danny five dollars.

A few rounds had shown that Danny had markedly improved since the last version of the game, near enough to Sam's level that she didn't complain about his less-than-stellar aim. Tucker, however, had needed some serious work in the team department, having become easy pickings for the Sam once he'd split off to go 'do his own thing'. Deciding that he wanted to see just how much they'd improved the design, Danny had checked to make sure that there were no other players in the game when he phazed into the computer, trying his luck and ghost powers against Sam and Tucker. With all the training that Sam had put them through, she and Tucker were able to give Danny a run for his money, and it was Sam who dealt the blow that knocked Danny out of the system. The hybrid rolled across the carpeted floor, laughing the whole time.

Tucker had eventually fallen asleep in the guest bedroom, the computers shut down for the night, but Danny remained awake, quiet, his eyes turned constantly upward, watching the sky wheeling overhead as he sat on Sam's windowsill.

"You okay?" she asked.

Danny turned to her, his eyes distant. "It's nothing."

"With you, Danny, it's never nothing."

"It's really nothing. I was just out this morning and…just thinking, that's all."

Sam sat down in the chair that was next to him, her eyes turning to the same sky he was watching. "What are you thinking about?"

Danny smiled, his eyes lighting up with the same fire Sam had always seen when he'd start discussing his dreams about his future with NASA. "I was…well, not on, but near the moon this morning."

"Vivid dreams, huh?"

Danny shook his head. "Not a dream at all, Sam. I was _there_. You know that I don't breathe as a ghost, that I'm not even alive in that form. My intangibility let me get past the atmosphere, so I was out there, careening amongst the stars." His eyes began to glow faintly though they retained their human color. "I saw the footprints from the Apollo missions. I saw the flag. I…I can't even begin to describe it. And I didn't even have to get into NASA to be there. I was out there by my own power, and the best part," he said softly, looking at her. "Do you have any idea what the best part of all of this is?"

"No."

He stood, pulling her out of the chair and taking her into his arms, hugging her tightly. "If it weren't for you, I would never have been able to be up there like I was."

She stepped away from him, tilting her head to the side, questioning him with the look in her eyes.

"You're the reason I have my powers, the person who made me half-ghost. If it weren't for you, I would never have been able to be up there, free and unrestrained like I was." His eyes sparkled again. "Come here."

**Pale facsimile**

**Like what others see**

**When they look**

**In my direction**

Taking her hands in his, he pulled her to the window as he stepped onto the ledge. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

She was wary, unsure of what would happen to her if Danny failed to compensate for the fact that she was human, but she allowed herself to be pulled up onto the sill. Biting back a scream, she curled up against Danny as he pulled them off-balance, launching into the sky as he went ghost. His grip on her was firm without being too tight, and they both vanished as they climbed higher into the sky.

Nearing a cloud, Danny made them both intangible, passing through the moist air untouched. Higher and higher they went, and Sam could feel her lungs starting to burn as the air began to thin around her. As they crested the top of the cloud, Danny came to a stop, possibly having sensed her growing problems with breathing, and dropped their invisibility. Loosening his hold in her, he grabbed her hands, letting her step a little bit away from him.

She looked up and gasped. High enough that nearly all of the clouds that had been over Amity Park were beneath them and kept safe by Danny's intangibility, the night sky was shining clearly above them.

"I'm not going any higher," Danny whispered. "I don't know your limits well enough to risk it." He smiled as she looked at him for a moment before turning her eyes back to the sky. "What do you think?"

"I…can't really say."

"No words describe it, huh?"

Sam shook her head. "Not properly, at least."

"I know what you mean."

**Earthshine**

**A beacon in the night**

**I can raise my eyes**

**To Earthshine**

"Why did you bring me here?"

Sam's question was sudden but not unexpected, and Danny pulled her into his arms again, heading for her house. "I knew you'd like the view. You may be a goth, but I know that you appreciate the natural beauty in life."

"You sound like such a sap."

"But I'm right."

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, you are."

**Earthshine**

**Stretching out your hand**

**Full of starlit diamonds**

**Earthshine**

Landing softly on Sam's roof, Danny set her down before returning to his human form. "I really wish that I could have taken you further, taken you up to the stars like I had been. I'd love to be able to let you see all that."

Sam smiled as she looked skyward, her eyes catching the brief flashes of stars shining in the gaps between the clouds. "You took me as far as you could." She rose an eyebrow in question. "What's so much better about being _all_ _the way_ out there? I could see so much from where we were."

"It's not what you can see that makes it worthwhile, Sam, it's what that experience makes you feel like. It's the essence of being out there, the depth of what you're looking at, what you're a part of."

**Reflected light**

**To another's sight**

**And the moon tells**

**A lover's story**

Sam looked at Danny, a smirk playing across her features. "Why the sudden burst of introspection?"

"It really put everything into focus for me. When I was out there, I saw how small I really am compared to the rest of the galaxy." He took in a breath. "And even if I am that small, it doesn't mean that I can't do anything to change the world. Even the smallest star can change the universe that's around it. Gravity pulls things close, puts them into orbit, creates new galaxies."

"So it put your whole 'defender of Amity Park' title into focus?"

Danny shook his head. "It's a lot more than just that," he said, snuggling up to her, his arms wrapping around her shoulders, "especially how a star in the center of a myriad collection of varied elements, all confused and floating around in space, can create something wonderful and precious."

"Something tells me you're not talking about planets forming," Sam commented as she leaned back against him.

**My borrowed face**

**And my thirdhand grace**

**Only reflect your glory**

"Like I said before, you're the reason that I'm Danny Phantom. You convinced me to go into the Portal. You pushed me to become a hero for this city, for this world. You are a calm center, a stable ground, someone I can turn to when the world is going nuts around me and I'm losing sight of where I'm supposed to be going." He turned his head upwards, watching the stars and catching the light from the moon peeking through the cloud cover. "All the time that I've had these powers, you've always been there, pushing me in the right direction. You did what was necessary to keep me on the right track. When you accidentally got rid of my powers, you made sure that I got them again. When Freakshow tried to bow the world to his insane designs, you were the one to find out exactly how to hide the Gems and use the Gauntlet." Danny looked down in shame. "So often, you are the one that bears the brunt of what happens because of the ghost fights I get involved in. You suffer for my sake, to cover for me, and I feel horrible that it's always been that way."

Sam laughed lightly. "And, in honesty, I wouldn't have it any other way. I know that I complain, but the real reason that I do is that you don't always seem thankful for what Tucker and I are doing to help you."

**Earthshine**

**Stretching out your hand**

**I can raise my eyes**

**To Earthshine**

Danny wrapped his arms around Sam, phazing them both into her room before laying her down in her bed, tucking the covers around her as she curled into her pillows. Moving a stray strand of hair behind her ear, he smiled lightly as he kissed her forehead. "Sleep tight, Sam. I'll be here when you wake up in the morning."

"Night, Danny."

**Earthshine**

**You're still out of reach**

**Form a dream of rise**

**To Earthshine**

As Sam's eyes fluttered shut, Danny walked to her window, watching the night sky through the clouds again. Thoughts and memories flew through his mind as he lay back against the wall, whispering a quiet thanks to the universe reeling above him. He felt his eyelids growing heavy, and as he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts strayed to the few moments he and Sam had just shared, hoping that there would be more of that precious time in the future.

**Form a dream to rise**

**To Earthshine**


End file.
